Peace of mind
by geork
Summary: Post things change, my own version of what happened, Terra lied, there's a new foe, and what does Slade have to do with everything?, eventual BBxT, this is my first fic ever.
1. Chapter 1

Author's notes:

This is my first fanfic ever, so please, constructive criticism will be highly appreciated, it's my own take as to what happens post Things Change.

I'm from Mexico, so if my grammar or vocabulary or (most likely) both sucks, that's why, on that account a Beta reader will be a great help and have forever my thanks.

This is a BBxT fanfic, if you don't like the pairing stay out.

I intent to update monthly, but if luck smiles on me, maybe I will update sooner.

Having bothered you already, please, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans

**Peace of mind**

by Geork.

So close and yet so far, he remembered Raven coming up with that one. It didn't make any sense to him; until now. She was standing right in front of him, but despite all of his efforts, she wouldn't let him any closer. It hurt, badly, after all that he had tried, nothing seemed to work out.

-"You go. You're the Teen Titan. That's who you are, that's not me. I'm not a hero. I'm not out to save the world. I'm just a girl with a geometry test next period, and I haven't studied."-

And with that she was out of his reach for the third time. Beastboy wasn't sure if he could take yet another one. But there was a job to be done. Cooped with the fact that he just didn't know what to do anymore, he decided to let it be.

-"Beastboy to Robin, I'm on my way. Over."-

He ran out of the school and took to the skies in the form of a falcon, searching for his friends. They needed him and he knew it. His mind, however, was racing with the last events. There were so many questions, yet, so little answers and it seemed that he wouldn't get any from his former friend. But where could he search then?, Was he even willing to?, He didn't want to think about it right now. If he was to help Robin and the others, he needed to focus on the task at hand.

After a while he landed on the top of a building, took out his communicator and surfed through it until a map with the location of their friends was displayed. They were inside the far east Warehouse of the industrial sector. He put out the communicator then he took off into the skies again.

After a few more moments he saw the building, inside he could make out sounds of the battle: explosions, the sound of metal clashing against metal and the like. With the grace of the falcon he dove through a broken window, flared his wings to come to a halt, and resumed his elf form. He landed in some kind of railing near the ceiling and far above the ground. Down the railing were several machines along with some tanks of oil and stuff. The place it seemed, used to be a fabric. Near the machinery he saw his friends fighting, just in time to see Cyborg crashing against said machinery. Meanwhile Raven, Starfire and Robin tried to corner what looked like a metal golem. Its back was to Beastboy and it was backing out trying to gain some distance from his enemies. It was walking right into Beastboy's range. With no warning, he jumped out of the railing, morphed into a velociraptor and charged.

* * *

Once she started walking she didn't look back, not even once. Her mind was blank at the moment, if she started replaying the whole thing she would have second thoughts. If she had second thoughts she would go back looking for him and then…, _stop it!!_ She was doing it again, right now what she had to do was attend her class and then go home and forget everything that had happened for the last couple of days.

She stopped right in the entrance of her classroom. She took a deep breath trying to clear her mind. She entered the classroom and took her usual seat. -_"Now focus Terra"- _

-15 minutes later-

-"_Easier said err… thought than done"-_ Terra sighed in defeat. Right now her class was a lost cause, for the second time she tried to re-read all the problems on the blackboard trying to figure out which ones were easier. Stupid geometry, after a torturous half hour of I'm-not-shure-this-is-right answers, she just gave up. As far as she was concerned whoever figured out the formulas for these things had way too much time in his hands. It just wasn't the fact that she hadn't studied, fortunately her test wasn't today. It was also because some green changeling just kept coming back into her mind. She had lied _again_; it looked like that was the only thing she was good at. She was neither a hero nor a villain, not even a decent student. She was a liar.

_-"You don't remember me?"- _The face he had when he asked was heart breaking. His voice sounded sad and disappointed. Of course she remembered him, he was the best friend she ever had, but what kind of friend she was? Every time he tried to get close she would lie and then he would hurt.

There were so many things she wanted to tell him, to ask him about. She used to talk to the mirror rehearsing, trying to figure out what she would say: How she was going to apologize, and try, whether it was a futile effort or not, to have a straight conversation with him and end it in good terms. No shouting no lying and, if she was lucky, no hard feelings. But when he showed up she panicked and with that everything just went down the toilet.

-"_Well that was yesterday. What the hell happened today?"- _When no answer came to her mind she realized, _again, _how messed up she really was.

She placed her head between her hands –"What am I going to do now?"- for the last month she had wondered that same thing. First she didn't do anything. After all, word was that the Titans had left Jump City and it was anybodies guess when, if ever, they were coming back. So she tried the normal life; she didn't intent to stay that way, just until she had made up her mind, but that was it. She was afraid of doing anything else; besides, it shouldn't be much before Slade came back for her. Maybe it was better this way.

She knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to apologize with the Teen Titans, all of them, for everything she had done. She didn't actually expected forgiveness, but it was the right thing to do. However, truth be told, she feared what they might say. She was utterly terrified of insults and rejection. Now she knew they were her true family and putting all reasons aside, she hoped against hope that they would actually forgive her. Just forgive, not invite her back to the team or living back at the tower. Just to know that she wasn't hated.

-"Yeah, like that would ever happen"-

A "shh" and a stare from her teacher told her that she was thinking out loud. After a brief apology she focused once again on the exercises.

Rrrrriiiiiinnngg

-"Okay class, time's up, put out pencils and pens and pass your papers front"-

With a sigh she gave her work, took her stuff and headed towards the exit. She needed to think, a lot -"_Beastboy is definitely going to tell the others"- S_he felt shivers run down her spine at the mere thought of what was coming her way_ -"Dear God, if I panicked with Beast Boy. How am I going to react with Raven or Robin?"-_

* * *

The new threat that was fighting the titans turned around just in time to see two massive raptor claws right in front of its face. One of said claws slashed its white mask like face. The other claw went down its neck and torso, the friction between its metal like body and the claw throwing sparks.

Unfortunately for the green raptor, its foes reflexes were cat-like. It grabbed the reptile by its neck and used its momentum of the jump to flail him like a bat successfully striking the other three titans that were still surprised of the sudden appearance of their comrade. Sending all three of them flying in the same direction, followed shortly after by the changeling now in his elf form.

-"Nice one Beastboy"- Raven remarked as soon as they regained their stances, promptly joined by Cyborg. She intended it to be a sarcasm but as they looked at their foe it became obvious that it really was a nice one: the creature's face now held a brand new scar. It went diagonally from just above it's left eye ran down where the nose should be and ended in the middle of it's right cheek.

Robin noticed as well -"Everyone, aim at its face, Titans GO"-

As the teen's scattered trying to surround it, the creature tried to run away as it had been doing for the last couple of days. Getting against the wall, it morphed into the same material and started melting with it. It was promptly stopped by Robin throwing a cryogen disk at the wall freezing it and preventing the creature from merging with it. But as soon as it froze, the creature became pure ice and jumped out of the way just in time to avoid Starfire's fist, that slammed against the frozen wall breaking it into peaces, not standing the power of the alien girl. Raven used her powers to control the wall fragments and began throwing them precisely aimed at the ice being's face. It barely dodged some of them and blocked others. Suddenly the creature was hit in the right side by Cyborg's sonic blast an was sent flying to the other side of the room where a waiting green gorilla punched it right in the face making a loud _crack_, stopping the creature in mid fly and sending it back where it came from.

As it turned out, it fell face first to the ground and rolled unglamorously until it finally stopped. Its mask/face went flying a couple of yards before also landing. Its body turned back to the "normal" white color. As the titans carefully approached the creature ready for anything, it became obvious that it wasn't going to move anymore. With a push of his foot Cyborg rolled the creature so they could see their "face" without the mask, it also became obvious what it was.

-"A robot?"- Beastboy was the first to ask out loud. The creature's "face" was a mess of wires and circuitry that, in its current condition, threw sparks now and then. As Cyborg kneed to have a better look, Robin went for the mask, picked it up and turned it over. He was not surprised when he saw that the mask also had circuitry on its back side.

-"Not just your ordinary robot"- was Cyborg's reply, as he looked at the scanners in his arm trying to run a diagnose on it. He was promptly met with an "UNKNOWN" flashing red on his display –"There's some serious engineering in this thing that I've never seen, not to mention that ability of morphing."-

-"Cyborg"- Robin called, walking back with the group –"you think you can analyze it back at the tower?"-

-"Sure thing man, but it's funny ya'know? Usually when we beat a robot it always…"- he was interrupted by a loud _beep_ from the robot, then another, and another. Their eyes widened as they knew what was coming.

-"GET COVER!!"- was the only thing Robin was able to shout before it happened.

_**KABOOOOOOMMMMMMM**_


	2. Chapter 2

Jump city is known for many things. First off all, it used to be a really insecure place to live in. Although its growing economy brought in a lot of enterprises and factories, skyrocketing the income and making it the ideal place to start a business. It didn't take long before all sort of thugs, from powerful mafias to thieves wanna be, came lurking in a serious attempt to take profit from the growing city.

Second, it is home of the Teen Titans. As a natural response of the growing crime rate in a world where powerful meta-humans, wizards, way too many lab accidents, sorcerers, spawns of technology, aliens and the like lived in, this unusual group of teens took upon themselves to be the safeguards of the citizens of Jump city. Not just that, in a bold attempt to make a name of their own they got themselves a giant T, their headquarters. This of course held different reactions especially among other heroes: while most of them just chuckled at the brand new icon the city had and the boldness of the group behind it (_ahh to be young again_), some thought that headquarters should be a secret place, somewhere where one could strike from the shadows and to retreat to in the worst case scenario. Not to mention that the hero path is a dangerous one and letting all the world know where you spent your nights was a death wish in its own accord; there were others, however, that thought that what the tower really meant was a clear sign of "You wanna mess with my city? Think again", arguments were heard that the tower had a psychological effect on the villains, discouraging and inviting them to not commit crime or else.

Last but not least, Jump city had a vast history of different cultures living in it; ever since man walked this side of the earth numerous religions and cults had tried to settle themselves in this city, some succeeding and some failing the test of time. This resulted in an unusual wealth of churches, temples and even maces. To put it simple it was any archeologist's dream come true; many buildings were usually discovered (_we had a church near the volcano?!?!_) and it is believed there are many yet to be discovered. Unfortunately, Jump City's economy and governors favored industry over archeology, factories over museums and money over culture, resulting in an awful lot of said discoveries noted but never acknowledged or studied and finally abandoned. Being remembered only when they were in the way of some new project construction, especially the subterranean ones.

But not by everyone, in one of said subterranean buildings live appears to have returned. Not just that, it brought technology along. What used to be an old temple is now a modern base of operations, with monitors, panels, a massive computer and some crystal cylinders big enough to contain a normal size human. Light however isn't at its best, being the only sources of it a light bulb on the ceiling and the turned on monitors.

In the middle of all of this is Slade, proudly standing with his hands on his back. His stare fixed on one of the monitors which held the frozen image of a green fist in a position that suggested that it was going to smash against the "camera".

-"Humph"- Slade barely mumbled. It seemed that his creation had failed, against four titans it had put up a good fight, but the five of them… well it seemed that the neural interface still was imperfect. O well, it was still a good experiment. With all this data gathered it wouldn't take much before his creation reached perfection.

He chuckled lightly at the thought of this white being, his "creation". Approximately two months ago he stumbled on no other but Fixit himself and his marvelous technology. Even Slade couldn't help but get exited with the possibilities for such fantastic advances. Of course Fixit didn't want to share any of it with him at first, but Slade was a criminal master mind after all. He had his ways to "persuade" the robot. Finally, all that knowledge was his; he smiled evilly at the memory.

Now, he was developing the best warrior humanity had ever set eyes on. Better than that, he could develop it in great numbers. The first experiment was a failure, true, but the feedback was worth it. What he needed was to complement the interface and the encoding; he also was entertaining the idea of a boost, more powers, and he knew just where he could get it. He was also very aware that this boost would make the hole being more unstable, nothing that couldn't be handled but also that shouldn't be ignored. After balancing his chances, he opted for the power boost. After all he would be in command of something not even the most powerful meta-humans could dream to handle.

Anyway it was time then to collect the new sample. So he would have to go for…

-"uugghhh"- a lazy groan from the other side of the room interrupted his thoughts, Slade turned around and walked towards the source of such sound. His steps resounding in the whole chamber, -"It seems that I will have to increase the dose"- he said as he approached a dimly lit bed that was hidden in one of the many rooms the place had-"You are beginning to develop some resistance"-

On the bed laid a boy, chained on his arms, legs, neck and torso. Roughly 15 years old, his clothes were shredded and dirty. He is incredibly thin and his skin is ghostly white. In his right arm he has an IV. His hair is brown, and a couple of emerald green eyes are staring at Slade –"P-please…"- his voice was just above a whisper but it seemed that the mere act of speaking was proving to be quite a challenge to him –"let… me… go…"-

On the right side of the bed was a little desk, with the kid's IV, but instead of being connected to a bag like in any hospital, it was connected to a black metallic box the size of a shoebox. Near it was a heart monitor and a laptop connected to the box, Slade´s hand was actually typing something on the laptop –"Patience boy, it will be over before you know it"- striking one last key the black box made a dull _beep._

Some blue substance made its way to the kid's IV. As his vision began to become blurry and he started to slip back to unconsciousness, he stared back at the dreaded black and orange mask with just one visible eye –"Pleaaase…"-

* * *

Beastboy's vision was blurry when he woke up, but he could have sworn that the first thing that met his eyes were a couple of blue big shiny happy eyes, blond hair and a big smile _"Terra?"_ But as he blinked trying to gain focus, the blue eyes changed into a green emerald pair and the hair changed from blond to orange, _Starfire_, she was moving her lips but Beastboy just couldn't hear a thing.

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Starfire turned her head -"Robin, it appears that friend Beastboy is finally awaken"-

The team was still inside the factory, however what little order could have been kept in the after match was lost in the explosion. Cyborg was once again running his scanners but instead of the robot he was scanning a big crater on the floor. Robin was sitting on the floor, his right leg extended to a kneed Raven who was healing it. As soon as she was done with him she stood up, walked near Beastboy and kneed again.

-"How are you feeling?"-

-"WHAT?!?"-

Both Raven and Starfire quickly covered their ears, the first already annoyed at the loud noise. -"His vocals cords are fine"-

Before Beastboy could say anything else Raven reached her hands and covered Beastboy's ears focusing her healing powers. Beastboy felt a little dizzy first, but as Raven worked her magic he started hearing as he usually did, and as usual, it was one of Raven's comments what he heard: -"Just when I thought you couldn't get any louder"-

-"Friend Beastboy, are you the O.K.?"- Starfire asked.

-"Yeah, I'm fine, but wh…"-

-"Are you shure?"- Raven interrupted.

Beastboy looked at Raven a little perplexed, so used he was to Raven just insulting him. But there was also something in her eyes, she wasn't looking at him, she was looking through him, right into his soul. It wasn't the first time she did it, but it was the first time he didn't felt like being read like an open book.

-"yeah, I'm sure, what happened?"-

Starfire was the one to answer –"Friend Raven saved us"-

Beastboy's eyes widened –"How? I mean, dude when that thing started beeping I though that was it"-

Raven frowned –"I can summon shields, you know? I just made a shield on the creature and tried to contain the explosion"-

-"Tried?"-

-"Well"- she started –"it _was_ a big explosion"-

With that they stood up and walked near Cyborg and Robin, Cyborg was just standing up –"It's no use man, my sensors are all messed up, I can't track anything"-

-"We need to see if something survived the explosion"- Robin turned to the newly arrived –"Beastboy how are you?"-

-"My head feels a little woozy, but nothing a good nap can't fix"-

-"Good, but first I need you to try and see if something of the robot is left. Right now we've only got the mask, but that's it, think you can sniff out a bit? See if you can find anything left of the body?"-

Beastboy smiled, it always felt funny when Robin asked for his help –"Leave it to me"- he morphed into a foxhound and started sniffing, trying to find anything that smelled weird. As he approached the center of the crater, the team following him, he smelled something very faint and after double checking he morphed back, -"Found something"- He dug a little bit with his hands and found a little piece of the robot's skin the size of his thumb, it was scorched around the edges. After a quick glance he gave it to Robin, morphed again into a foxhound and kept searching.

Robin took his time analyzing the piece. It was flexible; from one side was the white color they had seen all over the robot but it had tiny cooper wires running the back side of it. Judging by the texture and burning marks he could see that it wasn't plastic. He knew this kind of burnings; they always appeared on regular skin, and that disturbed him. He'd need to run some tests on it before he could figure out what was really this white material.

Beastboy morphed back -"Sorry dude, that's it, there's nothing else"-

Robin nodded –"I guess this will have to do"- He put the white piece inside his belt –"We'll run some tests back at the tower, so let's go home"-

Beastboy nodded, he wanted to go straight back home, shut in his room and try to figure out what he was going to do now with a certain blonde girl.

-"Friend Beastboy, now that the trouble is over. Please, tell us what happened with friend Terra."-

Beastboy looked down and sighed "_The one thing I don't want to talk about. I should have known Star would ask."_, but as he looked up he saw the looks in his other teammates. All of them wanted to know, it was just that Starfire was the first to ask about it. As he looked for the words that said "I don't want to talk about it" in the least harsh way possible he realized that as close as he was with Terra, all of them also used to be friends with her. With a chuckle Beastboy figured that they had the right to know what had happened.

But he also knew that telling everything that had happened will also mean reliving everything that had happened. This, he decided, was definitely not his day.

–"I'll tell you in the car, OK? I just want to go home."-

The tone he used was so unlike him, not harsh, nor angry and definitely not happy or goofy. Just tired, until now he hadn't shown any sign that said that he was depressed, or so he thought, but now it was clear to everyone that something was bothering him.

Starfire complied –"As you wish"-

With that said everybody turned back to the T car.


End file.
